The entrepreneur is seen by many as an important force in society.\nIt is someone who creates innovations and job opportunities, solves the green transition and gets the long-term unemployed into work.\nThe culture around the entrepreneur is sympathetic and exciting, and many want to be part of it.\nThis is according to Anna Brattstr\u00f6m, researcher at the Sten K Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship at Lund University.\nShe studies the culture of entrepreneurship and what consequences it can have for individuals and society. <\/p>\n\n
– Just like in other subcultures, there is an atmosphere that attracts. I see it in our students, how they see entrepreneurship as a dream and career choice. I think that is different than 15 years ago. On the streaming services, there are a lot of TV series about successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial services and products are being marketed and sold like never before. And large sums of public money are being spent on training and advice on entrepreneurship and innovation. <\/p>\n\n
People can develop their ideas and entrepreneurship in both private and public initiatives.\nIncubators, start-up hubs, innovation labs and accelerators are some examples.\nBut the results of these initiatives are unclear.\nHowever, previous research shows that the return on innovation has fallen over the past 30 years,” says Anna Brattstr\u00f6m. <\/p>\n\n
In a recent study, she examined the cultural markers that exist in the entrepreneurial sphere.\nSome are superficial, such as dress codes and language.\nJeans and t-shirts are more common than shirts and suits. <\/p>\n\n
– There is a strong youth ideal linked to the idea that entrepreneurship creates something different.\nIf you Google images of Klarna’s founders, you’ll see that they initially dressed like bank clerks. In the latter images, the dress code is jeans and t-shirt.<\/p>\n\n
Move fast and break things<\/i> is Facebook’s motto and embodies an entrepreneurial culture of hard work and long days.\nElevator pitch, scaling, exit, unicorn, pitch deck, beach head.\nThe Swedish startup world has strong influences from Silicon Valley.\nEnglish terms are often used instead of Swedish. <\/p>\n\n
– If you know how to chew, you show that you are part of the gang, which is also typical of a subculture.<\/p>\n\n
– The perception is that entrepreneurship overturns the establishment and that it makes life better for people.\nThere is a lot to this!\nEntrepreneurs have played and continue to play an important role in economic, technological and social development.\nBut what has happened recently is that entrepreneurship has also emerged as a strong cultural ideal. <\/p>\n\n
According to Anna Brattstr\u00f6m, it is important to understand the cultural elements of entrepreneurship to have a complete answer to the question of why entrepreneurship is so hot.\n“When a culture is trendy with many driven actors, large amounts of private and public funds are invested. <\/p>\n\n
– It is good that society invests large sums in entrepreneurship and innovation, but it is important that the money is spent where it will do the most good.\nIf people start businesses because they are attracted by a culture, rather than for financial reasons, it is conceivable that there will be an increase in the number of unhealthy businesses that are unable to stand on their own two feet and survive over time.\nIf dreams without substance are also supported with tax money, it is problematic because tax money always has an alternative use,” says Anna Brattstr\u00f6m. <\/p>\n\n
At the level of the individual, starting a business is risky; far from everyone is able to make a living from it. And of the entrepreneurs who invest in growth companies, very few succeed.\nYet becoming an entrepreneur is attractive, according to Brattstr\u00f6m, who believes that the strong subculture is one explanation for the phenomenon.\nAnd she is self-critical. <\/p>\n\n
– It is important to know on what basis you start a business.\nIf we entrepreneurship researchers encourage our students to start businesses, we should give them the right conditions.\nOtherwise, they’ll be a bunch of people who have suddenly been working on their business for ten years without any real return. <\/p>\n\n
– Although society benefits from entrepreneurship in terms of employment, the individual takes a huge risk.\nWe rarely hear about it.\n“We researchers are part of the narrative of entrepreneurship as a path to growth and a solution to societal problems.\nWe need to do something about that,” says Anna Brattstr\u00f6m. <\/p>\n\n
Contact anna.brattstrom@fek.lu.se<\/a><\/p>\n\n Upcoming study<\/strong> A lot is being done to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation. But the vast majority of start-ups fail and the return on innovation declines over time. Yet entrepreneurship is hotter than ever. Why is it so? The entrepreneur is seen by many as an important force in society. It is someone who creates innovations and job […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-visa-deepl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31683"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31778,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31683\/revisions\/31778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}